Hoffman Street Grocery

• 115 W. Hoffman Street
• Three Rivers, MI 49093
• (269) 279-2510
• Website
• Menu

Good chicken is hard to find. It shouldn’t be. Fried chicken is actually pretty easy to make if you have the know how. Chain chicken is…well, it’s chain chicken. It’s fine…but the best chicken usually comes from the places you least expect.

I mentioned a couple posts back about how I use Facebook groups to find new restaurants. I did that with Taqueria El Tejano in Three Rivers and was really impressed to find a place I likely wouldn’t have found on my own.

Another place keeps coming up for chicken. A place I actually stop at every so often and never realized they even did chicken.

I had to drop the kids of at Nana and Grandpa’s near Centreville for a few nights because of my work schedule. J is in New Mexico hiking with some friends and my work makes childcare tough. Nana and Grandpa to the rescue.

I was planning on stopping somewhere in Three Rivers for a pizza on the way home but the place I had scoped out aren’t open on Sunday. At that point, I figured I could try to find this chicken or just go home and order a pizza.

Hoffman Street Grocery is on…well Hoffman Street. The small building is just west of North Main Street. I have stopped in several times because they have a really great beer selection. It’s not a huge beer selection but they definitely get some unique beers from both Michigan and Illinois breweries that aren’t typically available at party stores in St. Joseph County.

The beer selection at Hoffman Street Grocery is really the focus of this place. They do have some staples as well as a full service deli counter but this place kind of blurs the line between party store and grocery store. I’ve gotten in to arguments about what the what makes one a party store or a grocery store (I’m still not convinced Quality Dairy in Lansing are “party stores” but I’m apparently wrong on that) so I’m not gonna try to label this one.

The chicken counter is tucked in to a tiny space in the back corner between the deli case and the craft beer coolers. I noticed it last week when I stopped to pick up some beer on my way to the lake. It’s really just a little warming case that holds the chicken. I couldn’t even see the guy manning the deep fryer behind the counter. I just heard the voice come at me while I was seeing what was currently available.

There’s a menu hanging on the wall next to the pop machine. I couldn’t tell what was in the case but I could see a coupe of breasts. I asked for the 2 breast meal. Unfortunately, the disembodied voice told me he didn’t have any wedges. I said that was fine and just asked for the two breasts. He pulled them out of the case and stacked them into a Styrofoam to-go container.

I thought about eating outside but I headed home. The two pieces of chicken were still pretty warm when I got there so nothing lost in the drive. The chicken was delicious. It was juicy in the middle and really crispy on the outside. The breading had a bit of a salty taste to it which really amplified the taste of the meat underneath it. Sometimes you find the best chicken in the most unexpected places…and this is definitely an unexpected place.

The cost of the two breasts was right around $5 but of course, I threw in some expensive beer too bringing the total closer to $20.

Hoffman Street Grocery is definitely a chicken place worth checking out. They have options for bigger buckets which I assume you’ll need to call in ahead of time. I really don’t know how I’ve missed the chicken here in the past. My mouth is still slightly watering thinking about the juicy, crispy goodness I found while picking up a four pack of beer.